I am a designer and developer and content strategist. I use my experience as a magazine art director and web editor to help publishers, marketers, non-profits and self-branded individuals tell their stories in words and images. I follow all of the technologies that relate to the content business and try to identify the opportunities and pitfalls that these technologies pose. At the same time I am immersed in certain sectors through my content practice and am always looking to find connections between the worlds of neurology, economics, entertainment, travel and mobile technology. I live near the appropriately-scaled metropolis of Portland, Maine, and participate in its innovation economy (more stories at liveworkportland.org. A more complete bio and samples of my design work live at wingandko.com.

London Olympics: The Most Embarrassing Opening Ceremony?

The firework display of the glowing rings in the brief video above was thrilling and well-executed, but otherwise, this evening’s opening ceremony from the Olympics in London was positively cringe-inducing. I’m sure some of the less self-conscious performers were having a good time, but some must have wondered why they were there.

Unlike the awesome (and a bit terrifying) display of synchronized drumming and acrobatics from the Beijing games in 2008, that attempted to symbolize the entire Chinese industrial economy, there was no obvious talent or social organization in the London mob. The overwhelming feeling was of a desperate mediocrity. And it was boring.

LONDON — With its hilariously quirky Olympic opening ceremony, a wild jumble of the celebratory and the fanciful; the conventional and the eccentric; and the frankly off-the-wall, Britain presented itself to the world Friday night as something it has often struggled to express even to itself: a nation secure in its own post-empire identity, whatever that actually is.

How could I be so far off base? Those kids in their “crazy” costumes moving quickly through awkward and under-rehearsed dance moves to a potpourri of Brit hits were “celebratory” and “eccentric.” The giant house-as-telly playing the greatest moments of British TV and movies in center stage was “off-the-wall.” Tim Berners-Lee inventing the internet (which enables these “wild” youth to IM each other and fall in love) is a symbol of “a nation secure in its own post-empire [and post-industrial] identity.”

Oh really? I know that I’ve written about the benefits of freedom for design, but this wasn’t freedom or creative anarchy. This was just awful!

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“ALSO PL DO NOT BE PROUD OF YOUR SICKNESS CURING INDUSTRY..!” The part you are talking about here relates to the British National Health Service. Under the NHS, people in the UK get free medical treatment. So far as I am aware the only place in the USA where you can get FREE medical treatment without ANY charge is Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. Understandably the NHS is something that we Brit’s are proud of so why shouldn’t we celebrate it?

Anthony you may well not be alone but I believe you are in for me sadly a generous minority. While I do agree some of the conceptual dross was indeed cringe worthy, I did on the whole like it, not loved it liked it. It is I would venture a tad unrealistic and a little mean spirited to compare some of those hapless volunteers in London who gave up their time to be part of the event with their state managed automaton compatriots in Beijing. That is with due respect kind of missing the point. Given their budget and resources China’s undoubted spectacular opening of their games represented their nation and its aspirations with an unnerving precision. As a Brit I thought ours characterized us rather well too. We are not naturally extravagant and the ceremony was inventive, self- deprecating, restrained, and definitely quirky if not eccentric. I for one was dreading it being a kind of Downton Abbey meets Star Wars. Sistawoman you did miss the show, you were watching the one in Londan. That one was awful.

You can’t even spell London! That explains why the ceremony didn’t appeal to you. And after watching American sitcoms, I also understand why Americans wont appreciate it either: It requires a bit of ‘brain’